A method used to relieve pain by administering enemas containing caffeine from coffee. The method was invented accidentally by a field nurse n World War I, who administered enemas to several badly wounded soldiers because she had run out of painkillers. Coffee enemas have been used by some alternative practitioners to treat people with cancer on the principle that caffeine taken rectally stimulates the action of the liver, increases the flow of bile, and opens the bile ducts, thereby emptying the liver of toxic products of tumor breakdown and substances that cause pain. This form of detoxification is used as often as needed to remove toxins, including those believed to come from the use of conventional pain-relieving drugs. The effects claimed for coffee enemas cannot be obtained by drinking coffee; to be effective, the caffeine must enter the liver without first passing through the digestive tract. However, coffee enemas are clinically unproven and may, in fact, cause chemical imbalances in the blood along with severe diarrhea and dehydration.